... but have a read through and chances are you may no longer be so interested in the answer to this question.

Having seen a few of your posts, it seems you have some understanding of Tibetan Buddhism so it will be interesting for you to see how Theravada treats the difference between a "Buddha" and an "Arahant".

Any questions about any of that, feel free to ask.

Metta,Retro.

"When we transcend one level of truth, the new level becomes what is true for us. The previous one is now false. What one experiences may not be what is experienced by the world in general, but that may well be truer. (Ven. Nanananda)

“I hope, Anuruddha, that you are all living in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes.” (MN 31)

... but have a read through and chances are you may no longer be so interested in the answer to this question.

Having seen a few of your posts, it seems you have some understanding of Tibetan Buddhism so it will be interesting for you to see how Theravada treats the difference between a "Buddha" and an "Arahant".

Any questions about any of that, feel free to ask.

Metta,Retro.

dear friend i m a newbie here and i m intrested in the theraveda .i think the basic teaching and principle of buddhism is same the difference is only the way followed in reaching the goals.and i am still intrested in the answer to my question

for49 wrote:buddhist text says that to attain budha you must be born as a male ? consequntly why cant anyone attain budhahood when born as a female and what kamic consequences decides the gender of an individual?

Leaving aside the question of Buddhahood for now, there seems to be a widespread belief in Buddhist countries that being born as a woman is somehow the result of bad kamma. This is an example (an Asian woman reporting about her meeting with some senior monks from the Thai forest tradition):

At the second day I met a monk from Thailand. He was with another Thai men who went to give him a massage. At some point I told them that I would be great if I was a boy so that I can give a massage to a monk and take care of him more. Anyway, when a Thai monk learnt that I wanted to become a boy so that I could take care of him more , he said you want to be born again as a man you have to keep at least 5 precepts fully. Another man said something like you are a girl because you hadn't keep the precepts well in the past lives. However, I far as I learnt, as long as you are satisfied with you gender it means you have kept precepts quite well in the past. Those who are lady boys (again! this could be seen as discrimination, but I learnt that from some Thai Buddhist books), have large tendencies that they didn't keep precepts well. Anyway, I think it doesn't really matter on that day , I didn't feel seriously irritated or anything. I just realise that many Thai middle-age men have very strong sexism stereotype of women in Buddhism.

There is a lot in the Jataka tales and other Indian folklore that would justify this kind of view, but I have not come across it anywhere in the Suttas.